So I checked out
Iron Man 3 over the weekend, no surprise, and we met up with a few friends there, at least one of them was seeing the movie for a second time, and mentioned he was looking forward to the scathing blog post to come on what a piece of shit the movie was.
OK. He didn't use those exact words, and I don't think the movie was a piece of shit, but it was... frustrating. I left the theater with the same feeling I had after watching
The Dark Knight Rises. The movie was good. I liked it. But I didn't love it. There's just too much that feels wrong. This is the interesting thing about art, and about being a comic book nerd in the age of comic book movies. I've developed a certain perspective on these characters after reading about them for so long. Or even at this point in the film universe, having seen Iron Man in three movies previous to this. I attach to certain beliefs or ideals that these characters represent for me. And when it comes to someone else's interpretation of that same character, our views might not jive. That doesn't mean I'm right and someone else is wrong, it just means that I'm going to be a little disappointed when things don't shake out like I expect (or want).
Which is what happened here. To be honest, I was excited about this one. I was pumped to see what Shane Black would do with a superhero movie, since I've been a big fan of his other films and I knew he'd worked with Downey before, (though it should be noted I haven't seen
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang), so it seemed like a sweet combination for awesome. And I think it will be when I see the movie again. It's not perfect, but I think now that I'll be less... shocked(?) with the stupid shit, I can watch the movie and appreciate it more.
There are a lot of things I could pick at and be a dick about concerning this film, but I won't. Well, I will, but not too much? Hmm. We'll see what happens. I have, however, decided that there were three main problems I had with the movie and those I'll outline here (hence the not-so-clever name of the post) and see what happens after that.
1) SHIELD is on vacation for the holidays. What's cool about this movie is that it makes an attempt to deal with the fallout of
The Avengers movie. Tony Stark went through some shit, and it's bothering him, and that's a big part of the plot to this movie. In fact, that sums up Tony's entire character arc for the film. He's having a problem dealing with the fact that he, an insanely successful but physiologically normal human being, just teamed up with a Norse "god" and an ageless super soldier to fight off aliens in Manhattan. Oh, and he almost died doing it. I dig that this was a big deal, because it would be a big deal. That's some profound and strange shit for any person to go through. Fighting next to a "god" against extraterrestrials brings into question everything we believe, as a species, about religion and our origins and all sorts of shit. Whether I hold to a particular religious belief or not, if I'm standing next to the "real life" Thor and an alien.... I gotta question a lot of shit on a fundamental "Where do we come from?" level. Then complicate that with a man like Stark, a man of science who was the first "open" superhero and a dude who seems to think the world revolves around him... to have that dude thrown into a world of myth and magic with things that are so much larger in scope and more powerful or important than he could ever be... that shit will fuck with your head.
So I love that the movie took that into consideration and made it a focal point. I love that Stark was freaking out because he had no idea how to deal with that kind of thing. It was a great touch for the character, and helps to blend the movie franchises together in a more realistic way. But it also kept reminding me of the one thing that bothered me most about this movie.
Iron Man 3 wants us to remember that
The Avengers happened, and that the events of that film have an affect on the overall world. However, it wants to deal with ONE aspect of that fallout, and that one aspect alone, with no attempts to handle the other obvious, more positive, aspects of those events.
The first two
Iron Man movies set a precedent for Nick Fury's strange obsession with shoving SHIELD agents up Tony's ass. Those movies were used as vehicles to introduce the idea of SHIELD and what SHIELD was about, in an effort to set-up for both
Captain America and
The Avengers. And it worked. But now we get to the third film and SHIELD can't bother to even send one agent down to lend a hand?
The Mandarin is an international terrorist (the US government sends Iron Patriot to multiple countries where it believes Mandarin to be hiding) who has targeted both the United States and the President. He has the ability to hijack television signals at will and broadcast whatever he wants. This is a technology no one knows about and no one can stop, (I assume, judging by the reactions of everyone in this movie when it happens). He has also claimed responsibility for at least two or three bombings, (I know there were more in the movie, but I'm not sure he claimed all of them) that have killed at least a dozen innocent civilians and for which there was no bomb device found. Some of the people confirmed killed in these explosions have disappeared, with no trace of their bodies found. The men who disappeared, at least in the two cases Stark investigates during the movie, were members of the US military.
How is that not the sort of thing SHIELD would be interested in? Perhaps not to a full-scale, Avengers level threat, but seems like an agent or two looking into this wouldn't be a bad idea. Coulson was all up in Stark's ass 2.4 seconds after he created the Mark I in a cave in Afghanistan. Mandarin blows up a few people with bombs that don't exist and no one wants to see what's going on? I realize that, to an extent, this is more of a United States threat, as Mandarin seems to have his focus set on the President, and SHIELD is more of a world threat kind of organization... but does it not seem like things could escalate from there? Wouldn't SHIELD want to at least have an agent, even just one, down on the ground to see whats's going on?
Even if I'm willing to stretch far enough to think that Mandarin's actions are below SHIELD's radar, Stark's "Come find me at home" challenge to an international terrorist would not have gone unnoticed. Yet again, no one thinks to send an agent or two over there in case some shit goes down because Stark just went insane and gave his home address to a warlord? Or perhaps, even thinking that there might be some unresolved anger issues he's not dealing with since he just made a grand challenge to The Mandarin because his friend is hurt (not dead)? Slight overreaction, perhaps? See, at the point that Iron Man challenges Mandarin to come for him, it's not even about Mandarin anymore. It doesn't matter who the threat is, SHIELD has invested a lot of time and effort into Stark, and I'm reluctant to use the word friend, but the two seem to at least have an established relationship as business partners, (even if that business is saving the world), and it seems in the best interest of that business (future saving the world) that SHIELD step in and at least offer to lend a hand.
But OK. Perhaps Mandarin is too small scale for SHIELD. Perhaps Fury figures Tony can handle himself, or he figures Tony asked for whatever happens to him, so fuck it. Fine. SHIELD is out. There are still a few other members of the Avengers out there, right? You mean to tell me that Captain America wouldn't at least make a phone call? The dude is pure good, and even if he doesn't like Stark, after what happened in New York he's got to respect him. They're teammates, and that seems like something Cap would take seriously, so damn if he wouldn't make an attempt to reach out. Or try to convince Fury to. Or something. And Widow spent some time with Tony. Again, "friends" might be a stretch, but she certainly does not wish Tony ill, or to see him dead. You'd think the same thing. She gives him a call or stops by or sends a few agents if she's busy. Hawkeye could give a fuck less. Thor is in Asgard. OK. But Banner's.... around. And last we saw the two of them, Stark and Banner were riding off into the sunset together. Plus, Banner shows up in that after credits scene, so the two must be friends, or close to. Banner didn't think to come over after Stark threatened a terrorist and be like... "Dude, you seem kinda angry?" I mean, he would know.
I'll even take this one step further and give them the benefit of the doubt up to this point. Everyone thought Tony could handle himself and no one wanted to offer him help. Sure. Then his house gets blown to fucking pieces and he's presumed dead. Still no one shows up. One of The Avengers died and none of the others bother to do a damn thing about it. Avenging is in their fucking name! That's what they (supposedly) do! If there was no reason good enough to step in before now, this damn well qualifies as a good reason. He's (reported) dead! Get out there and avenge him!
This is a problem the comics have as well, so don't think this is exclusive to the movies. The thing is, once these franchises and characters are all intertwined, you can't just untwine them. You can't ignore it, especially when you go through such painstaking effort to not ignore it in other ways. At some point, somewhere, someone should have shown up to lend a hand. Even if Tony tells them to screw off, that's fine. In fact, that would have done a little more to bolster that "man on the edge" vibe the movie seems to be moving toward. The fact that he's so out of whack with what happened in New York he even refuses help from legitimate friends, just because they were there. I'd be OK with that.
The movie went to great lengths to provide us a palpable threat for Iron Man. A believable, malicious villain with no restraint and no regard for innocent life. This is a madman who can and will do what it takes to achieve his goals. This is a madman who, if not now, soon will threaten the world with his menace. And the world protecting entities of SHIELD or the other Avengers do nothing about it, for no more reason than it's an Iron Man movie. There's a fine line, and I'm sure it's a hard one to walk, between believable, individual threat (someone that endangers Stark and his life on a personal level) and believable, world threat (someone that endangers the lives and liberties of everyone on the planet). Unfortunately, this movie did such a good job of building up The Mandarin that it crossed too far into that second territory, and then refused to acknowledge that it did so. Which just leaves me with a bunch of questions. How much easier would all of this have been if SHIELD had used their super secret intelligence powers to figure out Mandarin was a fraud? How much easier would all of this have been with just one agent watching Stark's back, or even better, one of the gods damned Avengers lending him a hand? The last 3/4 of the film would have been far less brutal for Stark (which is clearly why this didn't happen) if even just one person, or god, or big green rage monster, had shown up to help (just like real friends and partners do). Also would have shaved about half an hour off the run time of the movie.
2) Shane Black. Remember when I said I was looking forward to this because I liked his other movies? Well, that was before I watched this movie and realized it was one of his movies. Yes, a dumb mistake to make, and a complete rookie move, but I still did it. Now I could go into the whole thing where there's a big, bad ass showdown/shootout at the end of the film with a professional (police officer, private detective, football player, Air Force colonel) black man as the straight or serious half of an unlikely duo, with his partner, the off the wall and unchained "eccentric" white person (Mel Gibson, Geena Davis, Bruce Willis, Robert Downey, Jr) who got them into this mess in the first place. But that part didn't bother me, though I did find it amusing and predictable, it was fun. I liked it.
What did bother me was Tony Stark's relative nonchalance at just killing the fuck outta some bad dudes. Now, I'll admit, this is a bit of a muddled issue and one I'm torn on. I understand that all the people Stark killed were bad, or out to kill him, or hurt someone else, or whatever. I even understand that this is not the first time he's killed people or the first time another Avenger has shot at some dudes (Cap is all about shootin' some Nazis).
But I thought he made an attempt not to kill people in the first movie? I could be remembering this wrong, but I thought there was a whole idea of non-lethal when it came to the Iron Man suit. The palm blasts are powerful as shit, but don't kill? I thought that he didn't want to make things that kill, but still wanted to protect people from the things he used to make that kill. Or people that kill. Whatever. The suit, and its armament, are non-lethal. That was a large part of the plot of the first movie. Stark did not want to keep making things that killed. He didn't want to be known as... what was it? The Merchant of Death?
He killed Stane, of course. And Whiplash at the end of the second movie. But these fall under the accepted exception of the "bad guy dies at the end" movie trope. And in both cases it was more or less kill or be killed, which makes it a little more acceptable. Also, he never used guns, so I suppose it didn't strike me as so out of character. Theses were scenarios in which I was willing to accept death as an unavoidable part of the outcome.
This movie, though? Fuck it. There's a running gag in the movie that War Machine's name was changed to Iron Patriot because it tested better with focus groups. It's a whole thing and it's amusing and I don't even mind the use of Iron Patriot here in a complete not-at-all-like-the-comic turn, because it works and we're never going to get a Dark Avengers movie (though that would be fucking awesome), and even if we do, Norman or whoever could still just steal the Iron Patriot suit (this movie proves how simple that can be). But we still get our War Machine, because Tony just flat out kills the shit out of everyone who comes near him.
There are some arguments to be made here, and I'll accept them. To an extent. The most obvious is that Stark is a bit out of his gourd, but the movie doesn't handle that with the right mix of... hmm. So Tony admits to being unable to sleep, the one time we do see him sleep he has nightmares, and we see him have an anxiety attack multiple times whenever someone tries to talk about what happened in New York. These are the times we're forced to consider what he's been through, and whether on purpose or not, the movie associates these things for us. We can associate his failing mental health, his hang-ups and issues in processing what happened, with particular instances of losing control. With being unable, physically, to control himself, (or in that one case, his suit).
When Stark gives out his address and challenges The Mandarin to come at him, he's doing this just after leaving the hospital. His friend is in a coma and he's upset. He's seen the destruction first hand. This whole thing is presented as a revenge, (he even calls it that himself), and an almost heroic thing to do. It does not, that I remember, infer or hint at the idea that he might have made a rash decision due to the fact that he hasn't slept in days or that he has all sorts of mental turmoil/anguish shit going on. Just like in real life, when we lash out at people for unrelated reasons, just because we're frustrated or tired or whatever from something else, we take it out on whatever the next thing is that comes at us. It's not an illogical thing to consider that this is where Stark is coming from, and I hope other people considered that, too, but the movie never gave us a reason to do so. It did not ask us to. It gave us a fine excuse for him challenging Mandarin (revenge) and manages to subvert the other. The same goes for all the AIM thugs he murders from that point on. There's an argument to be made that Stark has been driven mad or pushed to the edge or whatever, and he just loses control and starts blasting dudes. OK. I'd even believe that. But the movie never gives us much reason to consider that.
It continues to treat Stark's issues as singular events, panic attacks when someone talks about New York. Otherwise, he seems to be more or less in control. Cool, calm, quick with the wit. The movie, as a Shane Black movie would do, treats his cavalier attitude toward killing as part of the job. And we even accept that. The whole cool and calm, quick with the wit thing? Full on secret agent shit. He's James Bond in a mech suit. Rich. Bangs hot chicks. Drinks a lot of alcohol. The similarities exist, so it's not hard to accept the fact that this is how he would act.
Except it's not how he would act. At all. This is a man who took a stand against weapons of death and destruction back in the first movie. A man who has, up to this point, been reluctant to kill other people (he shot the fuck out of some aliens, though, but possible his power blasts incapacitate them the same as humans). Also, he's not trained for this shit. He's a businessman. At best, an inventor. But not at all someone who has been trained to, or should be, enact(ing) righteous handgun injustice. Stark murders dudes with no remorse, and even more to the point, tells them he's going to do so. He announces his intentions to kill people.
Yes, Captain America shot people. Lots of them. But he was a soldier and he was shooting Nazis, which are two acceptable excuses for doing so (as a general rule for American cinema, that is). We're OK with that. Stark has neither of those things going for him. He's a rich, privileged business owner with an expensive, non-lethal metal suit that straight up threatens to murder two men. These men didn't torture him. The men he killed didn't even kidnap him. Just a couple of goons put in charge of watching him. That's it. And Stark killed them. Stole their guns and shot them. Point blank and with pleasure.
Are these the actions of a superhero? And if so, where the fuck does that leave us? Should we not be questioning this? Is that the sort of person we want to be looking up to? That we want our children to look up to?
I'm not saying Stark didn't have some justification. He did. But he did in the same way that Bruce Willis does in
Die Hard or Schwarzenegger does in... all the movies ever. It's something we accept for that character in that world. It's something we accept for the kind of movies that Shane Black writes. But to this point, those aren't the kind of movies Marvel is making.
(Do not come at me with a Punisher argument. Punisher is an outcast and a criminal, as noted in all three of his feature films, because he does the exact same shit Stark did in this movie. It serves to prove the point, not argue against it.)
There's been nothing that has asked us to accept that kind of wanton behavior from our heroes in the Marvel movie universe. And nothing that makes Stark, no matter how he acts, the kind of trained secret agent killer he becomes in this film. The movie doesn't give us enough justification, and beyond an amusing line from Pepper at the end, does nothing to address the trail of bodies Stark left to get there.
Still, though, those action scenes were fucking awesome, right?
3) Mandarin. Wow. Just... hmmph. This one is last on the list because I've been making an honest attempt not to be too much of a nerd about these movies. Also, I'm not even super into the Iron Man comics, so I don't have a vested interest in the outcome of this character. I've made a general rule that if changes are made that deviate from the comics, as long as the changes make sense within the context of what the movie is attempting to do, I'll accept it. Which is the exact case here. It works within the framework of the film. It succeeds as well as intended, fulfills its part, and adds some humor and a nice, unexpected twist to the proceedings. So with that in mind, part of me wants to let it go.
But come on!
None of the other things bother me too much, and in part, that might be because I don't know enough about them to care. I didn't read Extremis. The knowledge I've obtained on the subject, as well as the characters involved, is limited to what I've read in Avengers stuff, online, or in the first couple issues of the Marvel NOW! Iron Man run. From what I know, though, this seemed to kind of follow the basics well enough. I know Aldrich Killian was involved with it, but I don't know to what extent. I know he did not create AIM, but I'm OK with this change because it still manages to establish AIM as a morally questionable organization interested in future tech and super powered shenanigans. This is a good starting point for them to branch out into full-on villainy later in the Marvel movies, should they decide to go that route. And as I mentioned earlier, the changes to the Iron Patriot thing I'm OK with because it worked and made sense for this world that's been created so far.
Even before the swerve, The Mandarin was far different from his comic counterpart. And I was OK with that, because he was a badass. I've always known Mandarin was going to be a hard sell for casual audiences. He's a dude with ten magical rings made from an alien spaceship. None of that was going to work in a movie. After The Avengers, the alien spaceship part could have worked,* but that still doesn't explain the magic. Could have turned the "magic" into tech, even alien tech, to make it fit in more with the Iron Man theme, but the whole point is that he's sort of the opposite of Iron Man (tech vs magic). Point being, it would have been difficult to figure out Mandarin's true origins and work them into a movie. And I knew that. So I went into this OK with the idea of changing it.
And part of what bugs me about this is that it was done so gods damn well. The Mandarin, as a terrorist, was fucking awesome. All of it was done so well. The way the vignettes were edited together. The way he spoke. The way he looked. All of it was pitch perfect. While it might not have been a Mandarin in line with the comics, it was a Mandarin that portrayed the same level of threat and menace. While a different character, he demanded the same level of attention. The Mandarin in this movie was a caliber of evil that made him a clear nemesis of Stark's. He was so believable, we all accepted him as a legitimate threat to our (as in the general movie going audience) favorite hero (people love them some Iron Man).
Which just makes it more disappointing that it got pissed on. And I get it. The whole idea was that The Mandarin was this manufactured villain, so of course he was perfect. The character was designed to be all the stuff I just described. I know. But... god damn it. It was so good. To just throw that out for the chance to trick the audience and get a few laughs, to just waste the potential of that character... it's disappointing. That's what the movie wanted to do, and it was done well, so whatever. I don't like it. Mandarin could have been so much more.
But the other thing about pulling that swerve is that it sort of pisses on the source material.This isn't a debate about organic or mechanical web shooters. Regardless of which he uses, Spider-Man still shoots webs from his wrists and uses them it to swing around or tie up baddies or whatever. It's a small change that has no large impact. The essence of the character, or in this example the webs, is still true to the source. There's an alteration to the origin, but at the core level, it's still the same. And that's where I attempt to turn off the nerd rage and allow these changes to be made. Comic book writers have been making changes and redacting things for decades, so for us to quibble over the little things is dumb. This doesn't seem little to me, though. This is a fundamental change in the character. In what the character is and what it represents. That's a problem for me. That's the sort of thing that gets to me. It just seems disrespectful.
In fact, most of this movie does. It's a fun and entertaining movie. It has great action scenes. It has well-timed humor. It's a little different from the other movies, and while that isn't necessarily a bad thing, it works against itself sometimes. Despite it's attempt to deal with
The Avengers fallout, it doesn't seem to respect a lot of other core concepts established in the other films. This movie does what it wanted to do, and it does it well, but damned if it has to explain itself or lend some sort of justification for what it's done (or changed).
I'm looking forward to watching this again. I'm curious to see if I'll like it more a second time, now that I know what's coming, and now that I've had to accept what's been changed. I think I can be OK with it now. And, to be honest, if this is going to be Downey's last run at an Iron Man movie (and I'm willing to bet money it is), then it's not a bad one to go out on. I just wish it had been a better one.
*The alien spaceship thing would have been a genius idea. Take a dude who happened to be in New York when the invasion happened, who managed to survive and collect himself a little bit of the salvage. He just becomes obsessed with what happened, with the appearance of the aliens, with the power the creatures seemed to possess, and even more, the power it must have taken to stop them. He becomes obsessed with The Avengers, or perhaps just Iron Man and becomes The Mandarin. OK, it's not perfect, but I feel like there's something there. Like it could have been made to work.
